Tenatra:FTA: "Residents have complained that they are finding it hard to breathe due to the sulphur, according to New Zealand media reports."

Ermm so sulfur is making it hard for you to breathe but you are perfectly fine breathing the ash itself?

/I've been out and about when volcanic ash fell before//it was hard to breathe

The ash isn't going that far, yet. Not as far as the smell, anyway.

MaudlinMutantMollusk:The damned thing has been on the edge of blowing up for weeks, it's been well publicized, and they STILL needed to evacuate 90 people, INCLUDING A GROUP OF SCHOOL CHILDREN?

Don't be so freaking melodramatic. It's hardly blowing up. It's smoking a bit. There's not even a lahar risk. We have entire cities built on active geothermal zones, we're not going to not send kids on a day trip to a massive beautiful national park because a volcano "might" get a bit grouchy. No one was in any danger of being swallowed up in a pyroclastic flow.

/90% of NZ falls into the categories "went bang" and/or "will go bang".//Currently living in "went bang" territory, which makes a nice change

jabelar:othmar: i kind of don't think that had anything to do with that opening of the Hobbit movie.

I don't know, it is pretty cool that a mountain used in the movie that has been dormant for a century happens to erupt within a month of the opening.

Except that Mt. Doom isn't part of "The Hobbit." The mountain's contract clearly called for an eruption at the opening of the LOTR's second movie. It's wa-a-a-y behind schedule and will probably lose a percentage of residual income.